OPINION: Renée Tanner — Shooting too close to home

I’m still in bed at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning when my phone rings. As I reach across the bed to get it, my heart stops when I see the photo ID of my son-in-law on the screen. He sleeps until noon on the weekends. Something is wrong.

“Hey, Mom,” he said in a carefully even tone.

I brace myself for what’s next. They are at the emergency room? Jail? What?

“There was an active shooter in the Oregon District last night. Nine people are dead.”

No. No. No. No. No. No!

“I want you guys to come home,” I whimper to my level-headed son-in-law. “First the tornadoes and now this. Enough.”

Always a diplomat, he answers, “We will see you soon.”

I get up to get dressed, because, how can I spend a sleepy Sunday morning in luxury after hearing news like that? I want my daughter. I want to hold her and breathe in her hair and keep her safe from all the evil in the world. All the bad things.

I think of my own mother, who I know will panic if she catches this on the news. So I put up a Facebook post for all our friends and family who know my daughter now lives in Dayton.

“She is safe. Thankfully, they were too tired to go to the club last night.”

At 1 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 4, a 24-year-old gunman opened fire in the Dayton, Ohio, entertainment area known as the Oregon District. This district is frequented by my child and her husband nearly every weekend. Up until this tragedy, it was considered a safe and fun environment.

I am dressed and applying make-up, but as tears continue to roll down my face, I decide it is pointless.

I think about my tears of relief? Sadness? Fear? I think about all of the people on my Facebook post who praise God for keeping my kids safe. I am thankful, too, yet I wonder about the nine families who are not shedding tears of relief this morning. They will have no praises today. They have no thanks. All they have now are the “thoughts and prayers” platitudes that may bring comfort, but will never bring their children back.

So many shootings. This one in Ohio was the 22nd this year. This year alone! These tragedies happen so often, they are now white noise on the news. A shooting in El Peso, Texas the day before was barely on my radar until this.

Unless your child was almost in the line of fire, unless you have a close call like ours, shootings will continue to be “yet another ...” You will shake your head and say “Too bad,” “That’s terrible,” “Thoughts and prayers,” and then you will keep scrolling. Scroll on to the video of a puppy, the picture of a sunset. Just keep scrolling and do nothing.

Enough. Enough. It’s time to say enough, before every American has a shooting too close to home.